Well you claim to care about having your freedoms stripped, I wonder what you would call the patriot act? Or illegal wiretapping? Loss of opportunities, sure lots of that going around after an engineered economic downturn. Looks like you might not have noticed, but of the things you say would bother you, many have some to pass.

I don't agree with privacy invasion by the government, but if it happened to me then I probably wouldn't be upset, since I have nothing to hide. I also realize that I don't have as many opportunities as people did a year or two ago, but there are still enough that all of the time and effort that I've invested into my future won't be wasted. As of now there aren't any political affairs that interfere with my goals in life.

Because the history of politics has been tainted.
Thus, our youngster won't have interest in that area

Ironically this is a reason that people should be taking more of an interest.

sadly enough, the way world of politics work is too 'dark'.
Means too many complicated unclear matter that needs to be resolved.
In the process, there's many scandal being involves just to clear up one matter, sometimes it makes even deeper and more complicated than the original matter.

When the good people in politics (or judges most of case in my country) trying to clear up things and have good intention from begin with. they've been pushed back by scandals (mostly fake) that made by opposition or people who will get loss from his action.

Thus, if the bad peoples still involves in politics, there'll be no people who wants to stood up in this subject.
Adults finds it hard to survive in politics, let alone our teenager, our generation that prefer destroy everything in GTA game...

I have noticed a troubling trend among my peers, even the ones whom I consider to be intelligent people seem to have no opinions or interest whatsoever in the arena of politics.

Does this generation recoil at what has become a farce of corruption and political theater or does the problem lay even deeper; could it be that our generation simply doesn't care?

This is a very interesting and prime example of how two people can have completely different experiences with the same topic based on geographical location. I’ve actually noticed that this generation is, at least for the moment, overly and irritatingly concerned. Their interest has begun to border on obsession. Their support has become blatant zealotry.

People think that Oklahoma is a back woods state of Republicans. That’s not really true; we’re a traditionally democratic state. In the 20th century we were statistically the most likely state to vote socialist, and even expressed our support of (get this,) communism in Russia. We wanted to emulate their success. This is actually true of much of the south. Remember, the KKK was founded by the Democratic political party. The Republican political party, on the other hand, began in opposition to slavery under the leadership of Abraham Lincoln who fought against the democrat controlled south to bring equal rights to African Americans.

Anyway, we’re a traditionally liberal state and this transition to what we typically view as right wing American politics. What’s happened is that Oklahoma City-which holds the majority of our tiny population-is Republican while most of the surrounding small towns are democratic. I live in McAlister, currently, a city in south eastern Oklahoma with a population of 30,000. It’s a tiny little place, and it’s also a staunch liberal bastion.

However, with the growth of the oil industry in this region we’re seeing people moving into town from Texas as my family did. These are dominantly republicans, and they’re also greeted in a strikingly hateful fashion. The republicans and liberals are constantly bickering. The liberals infuriate the republicans by flaunting their victories in local and national elections. In many of our city elections there aren’t even republican candidates. It’s just one democrat battling another democrat.

This being said the republicans here are incredibly eager for ANYTHING to throw in the face of the democrats. They’ve become hyper critical and flatly petty. The result is that the democrats are rushing to find counter arguments in their defense. In the end, everybody’s strikingly aware of all the facts that favor their political party.

As far as Obama’s foreign policy, I’m not exactly sure what you’re perturbed about but it’s probably something you should’ve expected. It’s troubling, since America and Canada are amongst one another’s chief trade partners, but it’s not surprising to me. Obama’s been working to destroy conservatism even before he got into office, and as I understand the conservative party won a fairly large victory in the last Canadian elections. So, it’s no surprise that Obama’s attitude towards Canada would suddenly change. He’s been profoundly aggressive against American republicans-which is amusing considering this is a man who bowed before the North Korean dictator and kissed his feet.

I’m not entirely sure on the details, but if you’d like to hit me up with a private message I’m eager to learn more. An odd thing about me, I love Canada. I visited Canada briefly when I was a young lad and I’ve loved it ever since. I love Canadian politics, wish America would emulate some of their policies. I say odd because Canada is a common wealth state like New Zealand and Australia, and I hate the United Kingdom. Then again, I like Australia too-it’s an actually loyal ally. (Perhaps to a detriment, Australia tends to follow America like a blind duckling, but at least they’re loyal unlike the nationalist nation that is the UK which released propaganda against its allies.)

Hmm...
Well, all I can say is people exercise politics without their knowing.
Between peers, between families, between their colleagues, between coworkers, between their friends, etc.
For example, in a family setting, not everyone here has their father the solely authoritative figure. It could be the mother. It could be the grandparents. Who knows. Children themselves? (How? Maybe due to a rich inheritance?) Who knows.
Next, what kind of authority do they show in the family... to their childrens.

Among group of friends, who ends up paying the mess. Who ends up getting all the chicks. Who ends up being the total geek. Who's the dark horse. etc.

Among coworkers, who is the suck-up. Which person to avoid in contact. Which person is easy to manipulate to do your dirty deeds or your paper works. etc.

I have noticed a troubling trend among my peers, even the ones whom I consider to be intelligent people seem to have no opinions or interest whatsoever in the arena of politics.

Does this generation recoil at what has become a farce of corruption and political theater or does the problem lay even deeper; could it be that our generation simply doesn't care?

This is a very interesting and prime example of how two people can have completely different experiences with the same topic based on geographical location. I’ve actually noticed that this generation is, at least for the moment, overly and irritatingly concerned. Their interest has begun to border on obsession. Their support has become blatant zealotry.

People think that Oklahoma is a back woods state of Republicans. That’s not really true; we’re a traditionally democratic state. In the 20th century we were statistically the most likely state to vote socialist, and even expressed our support of (get this,) communism in Russia. We wanted to emulate their success. This is actually true of much of the south. Remember, the KKK was founded by the Democratic political party. The Republican political party, on the other hand, began in opposition to slavery under the leadership of Abraham Lincoln who fought against the democrat controlled south to bring equal rights to African Americans.

Anyway, we’re a traditionally liberal state and this transition to what we typically view as right wing American politics. What’s happened is that Oklahoma City-which holds the majority of our tiny population-is Republican while most of the surrounding small towns are democratic. I live in McAlister, currently, a city in south eastern Oklahoma with a population of 30,000. It’s a tiny little place, and it’s also a staunch liberal bastion.

However, with the growth of the oil industry in this region we’re seeing people moving into town from Texas as my family did. These are dominantly republicans, and they’re also greeted in a strikingly hateful fashion. The republicans and liberals are constantly bickering. The liberals infuriate the republicans by flaunting their victories in local and national elections. In many of our city elections there aren’t even republican candidates. It’s just one democrat battling another democrat.

This being said the republicans here are incredibly eager for ANYTHING to throw in the face of the democrats. They’ve become hyper critical and flatly petty. The result is that the democrats are rushing to find counter arguments in their defense. In the end, everybody’s strikingly aware of all the facts that favor their political party.

As far as Obama’s foreign policy, I’m not exactly sure what you’re perturbed about but it’s probably something you should’ve expected. It’s troubling, since America and Canada are amongst one another’s chief trade partners, but it’s not surprising to me. Obama’s been working to destroy conservatism even before he got into office, and as I understand the conservative party won a fairly large victory in the last Canadian elections. So, it’s no surprise that Obama’s attitude towards Canada would suddenly change. He’s been profoundly aggressive against American republicans-which is amusing considering this is a man who bowed before the North Korean dictator and kissed his feet.

I’m not entirely sure on the details, but if you’d like to hit me up with a private message I’m eager to learn more. An odd thing about me, I love Canada. I visited Canada briefly when I was a young lad and I’ve loved it ever since. I love Canadian politics, wish America would emulate some of their policies. I say odd because Canada is a common wealth state like New Zealand and Australia, and I hate the United Kingdom. Then again, I like Australia too-it’s an actually loyal ally. (Perhaps to a detriment, Australia tends to follow America like a blind duckling, but at least they’re loyal unlike the nationalist nation that is the UK which released propaganda against its allies.)

With regards to American politics as an outside observer the two party system fails to provide enough of a spectrum of candidates and ideals. When it comes to Obama, what saddens. me is mostly that he has lied on most points of his election promises and is by and large following the same plans as his predecessor, then again they both have the same puppet masters so this is not shocking.
I like to use the example of the mindless mobs of Rome cheering at their chosen color of gladiator (red or blue) when in reality there is little difference between the two.

Frankly I think we all have fatter fish to fry than the classic liberal/conservative jousting. The real problem these days is corporate manipulation where the victor is the one with the highest amount of "donations" from big business. Take a look at the Obama campaign that claimed not to be in the corporate pocket, until he took office, and millions of dollars.

I have a wide range of international friends with whom I have talked on this topic., and the lack of interest in politics is less a local occurrence than it is a pandemic these day.

Droodika wrote:
With regards to American politics as an outside observer the two party system fails to provide enough of a spectrum of candidates and ideals. When it comes to Obama, what saddens. me is mostly that he has lied on most points of his election promises and is by and large following the same plans as his predecessor, then again they both have the same puppet masters so this is not shocking.
I like to use the example of the mindless mobs of Rome cheering at their chosen color of gladiator (red or blue) when in reality there is little difference between the two.

Frankly I think we all have fatter fish to fry than the classic liberal/conservative jousting. The real problem these days is corporate manipulation where the victor is the one with the highest amount of "donations" from big business. Take a look at the Obama campaign that claimed not to be in the corporate pocket, until he took office, and millions of dollars.

I have a wide range of international friends with whom I have talked on this topic., and the lack of interest in politics is less a local occurrence than it is a pandemic these day.

I agree, I absolutely abhor party politics. This being said American elections are less party oriented and more candidate oriented and I think that having two competing sides is important. There’s a book called, “Divided we Stand,” that discusses this.

As far as political ignorance, I still don’t see it. Not in this region anyway.

For arguments sake, is the inertia of politics in people a bad thing?
Of course the idealized world is one where everyone voted and understood what they voted for/against.
The next idealized world is one, in which not everyone voted, but those that did, understood what they were voting for/against.
Isn't it better that small amount of people stopped voting, rather then voting simple for the sake of voting.

The best world can never exist, so stop thinking about it in idealized terms, go for the second best.
As long as those that vote actually care about politics, then that should be enough (they can still incorporate the ideas of others).
The popular vote should be eliminated, while the thoughtful vote should be strengthen. Of course it is impossible to discern which is which, so the state should create an education course that focuses solely on politics, states, and nations.
Interest would increase voter participation, and increase the amount of thoughtful votes.

I think a lot of the fault lies with the generational standards of Generation Y.

A lot of us grew up in very prosperous times, and our baby-boomer parents spoiled most of us rotten. As a result, we tend to be quite self-absorbed, selfish and rather apathetic when it comes to issues that do not directly relate to our personal happiness.

It's a personal peeve of mine that many of my peers have no particular opinion either way on a range of political or social issues, nor do they have the desire to learn more about them.

On asking a housemate her particular opinions about the performance of our current Prime Minister, she replied with this woeful answer. "Well, he must be doing alright if he got voted in as PM."

On questioning her on what exactly about his policies that she agreed with, her response was: "I don't know much about his policies."

...

So you're telling me that you think he has done well because he was voted in, will vote for him again (due to compulsory voting laws in this country), but you don't know anything about his platform?

You can imagine my response. As a particularly passionate believer in the power of the people in dictating the direction a country is taking, it saddened me more than I can describe to think that a lot of Generation Y is voting for the popular choice based on this flawed thought process. And she was sadly not alone.

Maybe we're jaded. Maybe we're cynical and believe that there is nothing that little ole me can do to change anything, but I find it thoroughly depressing that some of us don't even appear to be trying.

I personally think that a revamp of a lot of two-party-preferred systems needs to take place. I hate both the major parties in this country, and usually vote for smaller groups. Unfortunately they will never take power, and I find my votes being shifted to a party whose policies I disagree with whole-heartedly.

I think a lot of the fault lies with the generational standards of Generation Y.

A lot of us grew up in very prosperous times, and our baby-boomer parents spoiled most of us rotten. As a result, we tend to be quite self-absorbed, selfish and rather apathetic when it comes to issues that do not directly relate to our personal happiness.

It's a personal peeve of mine that many of my peers have no particular opinion either way on a range of political or social issues, nor do they have the desire to learn more about them.

On asking a housemate her particular opinions about the performance of our current Prime Minister, she replied with this woeful answer. "Well, he must be doing alright if he got voted in as PM."

On questioning her on what exactly about his policies that she agreed with, her response was: "I don't know much about his policies."

...

So you're telling me that you think he has done well because he was voted in, will vote for him again (due to compulsory voting laws in this country), but you don't know anything about his platform?

You can imagine my response. As a particularly passionate believer in the power of the people in dictating the direction a country is taking, it saddened me more than I can describe to think that a lot of Generation Y is voting for the popular choice based on this flawed thought process. And she was sadly not alone.

Maybe we're jaded. Maybe we're cynical and believe that there is nothing that little ole me can do to change anything, but I find it thoroughly depressing that some of us don't even appear to be trying.

I personally think that a revamp of a lot of two-party-preferred systems needs to take place. I hate both the major parties in this country, and usually vote for smaller groups. Unfortunately they will never take power, and I find my votes being shifted to a party whose policies I disagree with whole-heartedly.

It's like that here in the US too. As a uni student I discussed politics with my peers. Many don't care about what happens or who is president. The only thing they do is hate Bush because that's the popular thing to do. It seems people from my generation vote with whoever their peers vote for without being educated... not even our congress is educated, they pass bills without even reading them! I disagree 90% with what my president and congress do, it's disgusting how politics are played out over here and how politically illiterate people from my generation are.

I think a lot of the fault lies with the generational standards of Generation Y.

A lot of us grew up in very prosperous times, and our baby-boomer parents spoiled most of us rotten. As a result, we tend to be quite self-absorbed, selfish and rather apathetic when it comes to issues that do not directly relate to our personal happiness.

It's a personal peeve of mine that many of my peers have no particular opinion either way on a range of political or social issues, nor do they have the desire to learn more about them.

On asking a housemate her particular opinions about the performance of our current Prime Minister, she replied with this woeful answer. "Well, he must be doing alright if he got voted in as PM."

On questioning her on what exactly about his policies that she agreed with, her response was: "I don't know much about his policies."

...

So you're telling me that you think he has done well because he was voted in, will vote for him again (due to compulsory voting laws in this country), but you don't know anything about his platform?

You can imagine my response. As a particularly passionate believer in the power of the people in dictating the direction a country is taking, it saddened me more than I can describe to think that a lot of Generation Y is voting for the popular choice based on this flawed thought process. And she was sadly not alone.

Maybe we're jaded. Maybe we're cynical and believe that there is nothing that little ole me can do to change anything, but I find it thoroughly depressing that some of us don't even appear to be trying.

I personally think that a revamp of a lot of two-party-preferred systems needs to take place. I hate both the major parties in this country, and usually vote for smaller groups. Unfortunately they will never take power, and I find my votes being shifted to a party whose policies I disagree with whole-heartedly.

It's like that here in the US too. As a uni student I discussed politics with my peers. Many don't care about what happens or who is president. The only thing they do is hate Bush because that's the popular thing to do. It seems people from my generation vote with whoever their peers vote for without being educated... not even our congress is educated, they pass bills without even reading them! I disagree 90% with what my president and congress do, it's disgusting how politics are played out over here and how politically illiterate people from my generation are.

I think it is because TV and Video games. If you notice many young people can tell you who their favorite football team or how good they are in a video game. If you ask then whats the meaning of July 4th or where the capital of the USA is they will scratch their head. I think it is suppose to be this way as long as the public mind is elsewhere and not focusing on whats happening politically the governments can get away with anything. Look at whats happening in the USA and all the things our government is doing while people are focused on whats happening to Micheal Jacksons kids. His death took up 24 hours of TV time for a whole week ignoring many things happening in politics. I went to school with one kid during the Obama/Mccain election and asked him what he thinks about them. He said ,"As long as they dont effect video games I dont care." To see how ignorant that answer was I was shocked. Hell he probably doesnt even know why the price of games is going up. Bad economy followed by a weak dollar will raise the price.

I think it is because TV and Video games. If you notice many young people can tell you who their favorite football team or how good they are in a video game. If you ask then whats the meaning of July 4th or where the capital of the USA is they will scratch their head. I think it is suppose to be this way as long as the public mind is elsewhere and not focusing on whats happening politically the governments can get away with anything. Look at whats happening in the USA and all the things our government is doing while people are focused on whats happening to Micheal Jacksons kids. His death took up 24 hours of TV time for a whole week ignoring many things happening in politics. I went to school with one kid during the Obama/Mccain election and asked him what he thinks about them. He said ,"As long as they dont effect video games I dont care." To see how ignorant that answer was I was shocked. Hell he probably doesnt even know why the price of games is going up. Bad economy followed by a weak dollar will raise the price.

The reason i am not going to vote(im 15) and the reason that some of my older friends don't vote is because political parties doesn't care about the country.(Canada for me) Every single one, liberals, conservatives, NDP(although its hard to call include the liberals any more) only care about lining there own pockets. Its bad enough that a huge amount of Canadian tax dollars are going to pay some fat retired MP 300 000$ every year, or go in to a fucking man made lake to impress other countries. But now people have to drive down to a fucking polling station to vote for some jack ass who doesn't care about you or your friends and family, nothing even changes if you vote one guy in instead of the other they are all just corrupt.